What are you doing to keep busy? Are you taking proactive steps in the right direction with your business?

It’s already 2013. The New Year is here. I’m here. Have no fear. I don’t believe in resolutions. I do believe in fresh starts and planning for the future. This is what I’ve been doing over the past little while. I’m ready for whatever is next.

I just looked over my copy of The $100 Startup. I was reminded about different types of development. This book mentions the following information on development.

What sort of development can you work on?

Business development. Are you working on any new products or services? What will you develop for your business?

Offer development. What existing resources can you use in a new way? For example, can you create a launch event or new offer to land more attention and revenue.

Business development is critical because you have to move forward. You need to ship to the market. You need to see what works and what doesn’t work. It’s easy to get caught up with “busy work.” This can take up a whole day or month or even a year. Real work is scary because you have to step outside of your comfort zone and try something new. This is what I’ve been working on over the last few years. I plan on bringing many new products to the market in 2013. Watch out!

Offer development is just as important because you already have the resources in place. You just have to leverage them to see better results. We all have enough resources around us. We’re just not using them properly!

Case and point, my part-time job offers a gym on sight. Yet for some reason, most folks still complain about not having time to work out. What about your lunch break? Before work? After work? We all have the resources out there to accomplish our goals. We just need to take advantage of them.

The point of this article/my looking over my copy of the book is to remind myself that I need to keep thinking about forward motion. This is what I’m going to do next.

[Quick note: If you want to learn more from Chris Guillebeau and his book, I recommend that you check out the exclusive interview on growing a business that he did with me.]

What sort of development am I going to work on?

It’s time for me to discuss my plans on how I plan on practising what I preach. I realized that I already have the resources in place to make some moves. I also have a whole note pad full of ideas that I want to work on.

I’m going to create more buzz around my book on Amazon. The leg work has already been done. The book was written, converted to the proper format, edited, and placed on Amazon. Now I have to get the word out there. Once I spread the word, I hope to sell some copies. Once copies are sold, Amazon will find out about the product and then they can take over. Nobody promotes books better than Amazon. How many times have you purchased a book because Amazon recommended it to you?

In the next few months, I’m going to create another product related to travel. This will involve eBook/self-published format once again. I will do a formal launch, with podcasts, video, interviews, and posts. I plan on using older content and new material, all from personal experiences. I’ve gone on almost 20 trips in the last 7 years and I want to show my readers how they can accomplish this as well.

What development will you be focused on? Please share your bold plans with us…